Better News After the 'But'! - April 5, 2011

Good Tuesday morning! Some nights guarantee a late start in the morning. Whether you stay up very late for some reason, or you just don't sleep very well, the morning is not going to start on time. You might then have to call an employer and make some excuse for being late, or simply call in sick. You might not get your shop opened on time and this would be the one morning that new customer was standing at the door at 0800. Or you might be like me and get the privilege of sharing all the fun with your readers in the morning devotional! Woo hoo! Yes, sleep was a struggle last night, but the morning is here at last and the sun is shining brightly in the morning sky. The Bible verse for the day is Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." I have heard the first part of this birth about a zillion times, but often that good part after the 'but' is forgotten. It is all in one sentence why don't we want to recall the last part as well? Perhaps it is one of those things our Adversary likes to do. We take the first part and accuse others or even our own self with that stern reminder: The wages of sin is death...! But then we leave off the good news; are we trying to do the accuser's work for him? In Galatians, Paul gives us another reminder about sin's effect on us. "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." (6:7-8) We tend to paraphrase this as well with the saying "You reap what you sow", but again there is good news to be had here. The passage in Galatians at first seems to speak of God punishing us for sin, but that may not be quite correct. Paul speaks of reaping corruption from sowing to the flesh. The New Living Translation puts it this way: "Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death." By sinning or living to satisfy only our own lusts, we gain the products of that crop - decay and death. The punishment is already provided in the curse on sin pronounced upon Adam and Eve way back in the first days. God didn't want Adam and Eve to rebel against him because the effects of that rebellion were then, and still are today, decay and death. The wages of sin is indeed death. But! God gave us a gift. In Christ, God sent us a little baby and the heavenly host rejoiced. Why the rejoicing over the baby in Bethlehem? Perhaps because by coming down to earth not in his glory as the King of kings, but in the humble form of a virgin's son, and committing himself entirely to God's will the victory was already won. As a helpless child Christ would have been no threat to anyone, yet Herod felt threatened enough to murder. This gift of God not only threatened the powers of this world, but also would grow to provide the ransom demanded for the hostages to sin by God. You see, none of us could get out of this death and decay until God's justice was satisfied. I have a friend who uses the layaway program up at a certain store to buy guns. While the guns are on layaway, he says that the guns are "in jail". He cannot bring his guns home to enjoy them until he pays the price. In the same way, God wants to pay the price to get us out of jail. He sent Jesus to make the payment in full for the entire world. The only problem is that when Jesus opened the door to the jail, not everyone came out. In fact many clung to the bars and shouted insults at the one who wanted to free them! Those who believe in Jesus accept his gift of freedom and walk out of the jail of sin. "...but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!" That's one big 'but' there. In some cases it's okay to insert a 'but' in where it belongs, the Bible has a good one in Romans 6:23. Let people know that they can walk out of that jail cell of sin. Have a great new day in Christ Jesus our Lord! Bucky